Amanda Cockrell, 32, left, a nurse practitioner at Rush Lifetime Medical Associates, examines Joseline Nunez, 26, in Chicago on March 22, 2010. Nurse practitioners, who have advanced degrees, say they should be called "Doctor" if they have a doctorate.

Degrees pay off
At current rates, women could surpass men in total advanced degrees this year, even though they lag in business, science and engineering.

"The data also demonstrate the extent to which having such a degree pays off: average earnings in 2008 totaled $83,144 for those with an advanced degree, compared with $58,613 for those with a bachelor’s degree only," the bureau said in its statement.

"People whose highest level of attainment was a high school diploma had average earnings of $31,283," it added.

The number of U.S. residents with bachelor’s degrees or more climbed 34 percent between 1999 and 2009, from 43.8 million to 58.6 million, the bureau said. More than half (53 percent) of Asians 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree or more, much higher than the rate for non-Hispanic whites (33 percent), blacks (19 percent) and Hispanics (13 percent).

Among women 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or more, 65 percent were married with a spouse present, according to the statistics. The corresponding rate for men was 71 percent. For women and men with advanced degrees, the corresponding percentages were 66 percent and 76 percent.

Among young adults 25 to 29, 35 percent of women and 27 percent of men possessed a bachelor’s degree or more in 2009, the statement said. This gap has grown considerably in the last decade: it was only 3 percentage points in 1999 (30 percent for women, 27 percent for men).

Overall, 87 percent of adults 25 and older had a high school diploma or more in 2009. The figures come from the Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic supplement, which is conducted in February, March and April at about 100,000 addresses nationwide.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Video: Women to lead in advanced degrees

Closed captioning of: Women to lead in advanced degrees

>>>likely as men to have a
college degree
and could surpass men when it comes to advanced degrees by the end of this year. not all
education
transferred into
equal pay
.
women
with full-time jobs earned 80% of what men earned last year. that's down from a high of 81% on the dollar back in '05. and did a young